DeBowling - De Boles Rice Pasta and Cheese

I was looking for a mac and cheese after several failed attempts at making my own with the limited resources available.  And Annie's was not available from my supplier.  D'oh. 

Well, the only one that wasn't creepyvegan was De Boles.  So I ordered 4 boxes, thinking that would get me through the year.  Annnnd they sent me 4 cases.  48 boxes of macaroni and cheese.  I'm still waiting to see if anyone but me has noticed this, but in the mean time, I might as well try it.

De Boles is not a single serving the way I felt Annie's was.  I like a big helping of mac, but according to De Boles, one box of mac is about 1000 calories.  And I didn't use low-fat milk or unsalted butter, so I'm sure that would make it more caloric (and delicious). 

Because I live alone and can't stand reheated pasta (or reheated mac in general, bleh), I decided to make a portion of it.  I'd save the other pasta just in case I needed it for something.  I used dry measuring cups and found that the box contained about 1 1/3 cups of noodles.  So I took out about 3/4 of a cup to boil and saved the other portion. 

I accidentally went a bit over the time limit and boiled it for 12 minutes.  It was fine.

Two tablespoons (pats--I get pre-cut butter and assume that each pat is about a tablespoon) of butter, 60ml of milk (Japanese milk is usually pretty high-fat), mix ... add powder ... mix ... try to stomp out the clumps ... stomp stomp stomp ... fail ... and ... eat.

Actually, it isn't bad.  Not at all.  I'd read it was bland or that it was unpleasant to look at, and while the latter is true, the former isn't.  It tastes like mac and cheese should.  Tangy, cheesy, and good.  The pasta's texture wasn't bad, even though I overcooked it.  I do prefer more sizable elbows, but this does the job I need it to do, which is to be macaroni and cheese. 

But I do agree that the color leaves something to be desired.  The pasta is the taupeish shade you expect from rice pasta, and the cheese sauce is white.  Not exactly the most pleasant look, especially for someone like me who despises milk and anything that looks like milk.  (IT COMES FROM A COW'S BOOB, OKAY?  GROSS.  Process it any way you like so it looks different, but ew, milk.)  Some color would be appreciated. 

I would buy it again, but first I need to get through some of these bajillion boxes I have.